Mairi Scott-Aguirre, new assistant principal at Reynolds High School, has implemented attendance policies that in less than three months of school have improved the school's attendance rate from 88 percent to 92.27 percent. Sara Hottman/The Oregonian

Reynolds High School has cracked down on truancy with new policies and penalties that have already improved its attendance rate this school year.

The average proportion of students showing up for school has climbed from 88 percent to more than 92 percent in less than three months of school.

The improvements come with a new truancy initiative among east county’s five school districts and policies put in place by Mairi Scott-Aguirre, a new assistant principal for Reynolds High, said Andrea Watson, spokesman for the district.

“If students have better than 94 percent attendance — that’s eight days absent the whole year — they’re almost guaranteed to graduate from high school,” Scott-Aguirre said.

She’s seen that correlation in action. Scott-Aguirre came from Hillsboro School District’s Liberty High School, where the on-time graduation rate is 83 percent and attendance is near perfect. Liberty High’s dropout rate is also significantly lower than that of Reynolds. Last year 28 students dropped out of Liberty, a school of 1,385 students. Reynolds lost 254 students in a school of 2,730.

A violation is a misdemeanor that can result in a $190 fine, which could be issued for every day the child violates the law. However, schools would issue a citation only after a notification letter, school meeting and other measures. A citation also can be dismissed after 30 days of consistent attendance.

Reynolds High has started sending out its first round of truancy notification letters, Scott-Aguirre said.

The truancy policy has made a difference in Leo Sanchez's attendance; the 16-year-old sophomore was a chronic skipper his freshman year. He said the idea of a fine motivated him to attend school more than his parents’ anger, school officials’ intervention or suspensions.

“It’s going to the state,” he said of the fine. “That’s a waste of money.”

Last year, after she dropped him off, he would skip class with friends. Sanchez said maybe then he was bored with class and maybe now he’s bored with skipping. He also may be finding it harder to skip and less appealing in the face of stiffer consequences. Whatever the reason, he’s consistently showing up for class.

School rules

Before the truancy letters started going out, Scott-Aguirre and the attendance team established stricter attendance rules.

The school launched a better hall pass system. Teachers stand in the hallways between periods, greeting students and encouraging them to get to class, making it harder for kids to slip away. When students skip class, the school calls their parents. And teachers are signing up to mentor students with bad attendance, a program that will start later in the school year.

“We’re improving parent outreach and tightening up internal controls to make students more accountable, and (we) know when we need to use (truancy) letters,” Scott-Aguirre said. “This has been a combined effort with security staff, administration, classified staff and the district.”

For students who continue to skip, punishment has shifted from suspension from school to in-school suspension during which students do homework.

The first skip results in detention, the second skip two detentions, and after that penalties escalate to in-school suspension.

“I try to avoid out-of-school suspension,” Scott-Aguirre said.

The changes seem basic, and indeed many schools have been doing them for years. But Reynolds is unique in its size and diversity, Scott-Aguirre said, and various efforts the school has tried have failed over the years. Now it seems to have found a formula that works.

“It will be a long slog to get where we want to be,” Scott-Aguirre said. “Our measure of success is how many students graduate. We want attendance to almost guarantee students graduate.”